Ubuntu 11.10 on Dell Inspiron 530 desktop doesn't "see" USB

kjmorris · 03-03-2012, 04:02 PM

My Dell Inspiron 530 desktop came with Windows Vista installed. I added a WD 500GB external hard drive, installed Ubuntu 9.xx on it, and set it to boot into Ubuntu. This worked fine for a long time but a few weeks ago the system froze and didn't respond to ctrl-alt-del so I shut off the power, waited a while, and re-booted. I got a Grub Error 21 message and was not able to figure out how to solve it. Since I rarely use Windows, I installed Ubuntu 11.10 on the hard drive (and wiped out Windows). I went in the BIOS and re-set the boot order to boot first from the hard drive and disabled the external HD in the boot order. I figured that I would at least be able to access the data files on the external USB HD and copy them to the internal hard drive. However, my new set-up doesn't "see" USB at all. I tried attaching the external USB HD to each of the six USB ports (4 front, 2 back) to no avail. Same thing for a USB thumb drive. I went into the BIOS and confirmed that USB support was enabled there. I also tried using a different USB cable but this made no difference.

I would appreciate any guidance. TIA Kelly

rokytnji · 03-04-2012, 09:16 AM

What does

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

show in terminal with the WD 500GB external hard drive plugged in?

It is just probably not auto mounting and needs to manually mounted via the mount command.

It also mentions on how to configure automount usb also in Ubuntu. If the 500GB external hard drive is formatted as ntfs

It mentions on what is needed

Quote:

You must have the ntfs-3g driver installed. See MountingWindowsPartitions for more information.

kjmorris · 03-04-2012, 10:57 AM

sudo fdisk -l shows only the 320GB internal HDD where Ubuntu 11.10 is installed.

There are no external storage devices in the File System Media folder and no hidden files - it is empty.

In /apps/nautilus/preferences/ there are no media_automount lines, only the media_autorun lines. I can navigate up and down the list with arrow keys but can't select anything with the space bar.

There is no media tab in /apps/nautilus/preferences/

The 500GB external hard drive was formatted as ntfs when I bought it but was re-formatted as ext3 when I installed the bootable Ubuntun 9.xx on it. I tried to manually mount and unmount as per the instructions but there was nothing there to mount or unmount.

rokytnji · 03-04-2012, 11:09 AM

Quote:

but a few weeks ago the system froze and didn't respond to ctrl-alt-del so I shut off the power, waited a while, and re-booted. I got a Grub Error 21 message and was not able to figure out how to solve it

If not showing up in fdisk when plugged in . I am in puppy racy 5.2 running off of pendrive right now.

Code:

sh-3.00# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1d5c3df3

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63    25173854    12586896   27  Unknown
/dev/sda2   *    25173855    25382699      104422+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3        26261504   480014335   226876416    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4       480014336   488396799     4191232    5  Extended
/dev/sda5       480016384   488396799     4190208    b  W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdb: 4051 MB, 4051697152 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 492 cylinders, total 7913471 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0026f6ec

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *          63     7913470     3956704    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

/dev/sdb1 is what I am running Puppy Linux right now off of this Acer Laptop. I am wondering if the freeze you describe was the external hardrive you have going broke/breaking/fubar. If fdisk won't show it. Then something is physically wrong with external hardrive power supply,cable,or internal drive itself.

Just my opinion though.

Edit: by the way. The unclean shutdown that gave you the grub21 error could have been fixed without a reinstall. A Rescatux, could have done a file system check and repaired grub2 on your corrupted partitions from a hard shutdown after a freeze. Just for further knowledge.

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/02/live-...and-grub2.html

kjmorris · 03-04-2012, 06:18 PM

I think that you're right about the hard drive, especially since I already switched out the cable and that didn't help.

And thanks for the Rescatux tip!

KJM